Several social media users have shared an image of two outside-broadcasting (OB) vans severely vandalised. As per the claim, the image is from Lucknow. The accompanying text says that “godi media” (pro-government channels) were attacked. An OB van of CNN News18 can be identified in the image.

“All happiness is on one side and the joy that godi media was attacked is on another side. Long live Lucknowites,” reads the text.

(Transalted from рд╕рд╛рд░реА рдЦреБрд╢реА рдПрдХ рддрд░рдл рдЧреЛрджреА рдореАрдбрд┐рдпрд╛ рдХреА рдареБрдХрд╛рдИ рдХреА рдЦреБрд╢реА рдПрдХ рддрд░рдл, рдЬрд┐рдпреЛ рд▓рдЦрдирдК рд╡рд╛рд▓реЛрдВ)

The image was posted by several Twitter users including Congress national secretary and social media in-charge Zakiya Khan (archived link) and Beerwah Congress media coordinator Aabid Mir Magami (archived link). They gained over 400 retweets cumulatively.

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It is noteworthy that violence was reported in Lucknow in the last week of September. The alleged gang-rape of a Dalit woman in Hathras sparked protests by opposition parties. Congress and Bhim army held demonstrations in the state capital to demand stern action against the accused. UP Congress alleged that police charged party workers with batons as they proceeded toward the Chief Minister’s residence.

Similarly, several Facebook users posted this image.

Old image from anti-CAA protests in Lucknow

In order to gain context behind the viral image, Alt News performed a reverse image search using InVID’s browser extension on Bing.

We found that the image was published in a December 2019 report by the Hindi news website Local Heading. As per the report, miscreants attacked journalists and OB vehicles during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Using this as a clue, we performed a keyword search on Google and found a Business Times article which carried an image of the identical News18 OB van. This image was tweeted by ANI. As per the tweet, “Lucknow: Protest against #CitizenshipAct turns violent in Hazratganj. Protesters pelted stones, Police resorted to lathi charge. A media OB van has also been set ablaze.”

News18 reported about the vandalism in a December 19, 2019 broadcast where the anchor stated that stone pelting was happening outside Lucknow Press Club. The channel’s UP bureau chief Pranshu Mishra informed the anchor (from 0:30 to 1:13) that similar protests were being held across the city.

Therefore, Congress IT cell members Zakiya Khan and Aabid Mir Magami shared an old image of a News18 OB van damaged during CAA protests as a recent incident.

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About the Author

ЁЯЩП Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.